Liberal, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Liberal, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Liberal lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Liberal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Liberal — the short answer
Liberal, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 540 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 540 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Liberal's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Liberal's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Liberal
Each reading below is measured for Liberal itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLiberal runs about 227 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLiberal sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Liberal is in
Liberal sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Liberal's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barton County.
What Grows in Liberal
Every plant below cleared Liberal's own zone 7a and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Liberal?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Liberal
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Liberal. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DON'S OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- T32N R33W 02ACD1Nitrate · 1000 ft
- well OZC-6Nitrate · 1000 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1384Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- LEIST STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LIBERAL MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- BARNES APPLIANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Unknown - Pb.& Zn.Mining · 3.8 mi
- FIRST CLASS SWINECAFO · 4.5 mi
- Consolidated Troup Mine # 1Mining · 4.8 mi
- THE """"K"""" SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- T32N R32W 33CCC1Nitrate · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Liberal's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Liberal.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Liberal
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Liberal
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Liberal, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Liberal — Nitrate (28 sites) and Mining (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Liberal
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Liberal average
Your land is one point inside Liberal
Everything above resolves to Liberal as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 540 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Liberal Average
Liberal Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Liberal
- ●One soil character for all of Liberal
- ●Frost dates read at Liberal's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Liberal's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Liberal
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Liberal, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Liberal averages can't show:
We read public map data around Liberal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Liberal average
How we know this about Liberal
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Liberal’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Liberal
When does frost risk typically end in Liberal?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Liberal typically lands around Mar 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 17.
When is the first frost in Liberal?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Liberal typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Liberal?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Liberal sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 26, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Liberal?
The federal record around Liberal is a meaningful one — 42 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Liberal?
From about Oct 10 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Liberal's scale — its 7a band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Liberal's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Liberal’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Liberal's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 540 acres it covers and 42 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Liberal's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Liberal's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 9 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 42 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Liberal, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Liberal's boundary and the 540 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Liberal's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Liberal's 540 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Barton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Barton County
- The growing challenges every Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Barton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Liberal's 540 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Liberal you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 540 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Liberal-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriLiberal sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides